The veteran boat racer from Florida is the best driver never to have won the APBA Gold Cup Unlimited Hydroplane race on the Detroit River, and he thinks it’s about time he did.

David gets the opportunity to change history this weekend when he pilots the U-1 Oh Boy! Oberto/Miss Madison entry in the 104th Detroit Yacht Club APBA Gold Cup presented by Jarvis Property Restoration.

He’ll fire up the boat’s 3,000-horsepower turbine engine with his nemesis and 10-time Gold Cup champion Dave Villwock looking on from the pits.

Villwock, also 59, announced his retirement as a driver from the sport in May and will consult this weekend on the U-37 Schumacher Racing Miss Beacon Plumbing to be driven by J. Michael Kelly.

“Yes, sir, there are lots of good drivers and teams still competing for the Gold Cup, but we have been building for this moment all season,” said David, who many times has made a run at winning the most cherished trophy in thunderboat racing only to be thwarted by Villwock and the U-1 Spirit of Qatar 96 hydroplane. “That’s if I don’t screw it up.”

David is a cool customer with a great sense of humor, a man who has risked his life in powerboat racing for 40 years and never seems to get flustered.

But he understands — despite winning hundreds of boat races and many championships, including six driver titles in Unlimited Hydroplanes — the Gold Cup has eluded him, teased him and still tempts him after an incredible seven times as runner-up in motorsport’s oldest active event.

“There are four or five different boats that can win the Gold Cup on Sunday, but I really think we have the best shot,” said David, a successful realtor. “The Gold Cup is certainly our Daytona 500 and the only thing we have missed. I want to put my name in the book.”

David’s wife, Sabrina, is so nervous about her husband’s attempt to win the Gold Cup on Sunday that she has decided to remain in the Florida Keys.

“It’s far too emotional for her to watch,” David said. “She just can’t make the trip.”

David will have who he describes as “some boating buddies” from the Bahamas coming to the Gold Cup, however.

“They’ve picked a great race to be at,” David said. “When you see these boats charging down the back straight past the Detroit Yacht Club super loose and into the Roostertail Turn, it just doesn’t get any better than that.”

David could have retired, but his passion for driving and his dream of winning the Gold Cup has never wavered.

“These boats talk to you,” David said. “ ‘You’re going to get hurt someday,’ they say. They just don’t tell you when.”

David knows his team members will do everything possible to get him to the judge’s stand first on Sunday. “They are totally focused,” David said. “I owe them a lot. They have made a personal commitment to me to win a Gold Cup.”